People register on DaniWeb for numerous reasons:

1 - They want to see what they're missing out on and are curious what features are included with a free membership

2 - They registered at their work and didn't realize they had to confirm their email, and by the time they had access to their email, they found the answer to what they were looking for and didn't need the site anymore

3 - They wanted to follow a particular thread and receive email updates

4 - They wanted to contact a particular member, and the only way to do so is to send them a private message

5 - They wanted to read member profiles

6 - They wanted to download attachments, or a thread they were reading had an attachment, and they needed to register to view it

7 - They are shy or not comfortable posting in online discussion boards, but want the full benefits of registration

8 - They registered to post their question, but then found the answer they needed and didn't need to ask after all.

I can think of more.

It appears that the main factor here are users who entered invalid email addresses, didn't want to take the time to confirm their email address (and forgot about the site), wanted to post something quick and didn't want to take the time to confirm their email, didn't have access to their email address when they registered and later found what they were looking for elsewhere, etc ...

Over 40,000 members have registered but not activated their memberships by clicking the link that was emailed to them.

ahh I see... I didn't think of all that. It just angers me when people commit to something, but never really follow through... and I guess I didn't pay attention to all the services Daniweb offers. Sorry for such an ignorant post

No, not ignorant at all. I mean, 40K people just haven't followed through with the registration process.

Unfortunately, there's nothing I can do about that, as we're legally bound to require email confirmation, and our ISP requires that any mail we send out be to a double opt-in mailing list (meaning we actually have to demonstrate proof as to the details surrounding, not just the registration, but the activation as well).

It's pretty normal, and to be expected in all forum communities.
http://www.daniweb.com/techtalkforum...ad.php?t=71393

ohhic.. Thanks for the link

So why can't these 40000 people be deleted? Or is the number helpful in marketing the site?

hah.. that's what I figured... The active members of the forum may be only 40k, but it looks like there are 115k! Makes the forum look more successful..

The users can't be deleted because they are important for our records (As I said, I'm required to keep data about all members who register). Additionally, it's important to have the data to track growth trends so that I can improve the site. Knowing the percentage of users who fail completing registration each day lets me tweak the registration process to increase the conversion rate and track progress.

When users who don't activate their email addresses log into DaniWeb, they're presented with a page to update their emails. Additionally, they're sent reminder emails every so often in case it landed in their junk filters or something.

I'm not trying to hide true member count. You can see the number of active, contributing members in the statistics area of the forum index in addition to via the member list page.